EDITORIAL: BEFORE OUR EYES THE FAILURES AND CRISIS OF PROFITEERS’ RULE DOMINATE THE PLANET

By Ken Ferguson

The sheer horror of the flash floods in Nepal and Tibet that brought death, mass destruction and unquantifiable human misery with them is also the starkest possible warning of the realities of climate crisis.

There is no room for pretence in this case – the melting glacier which triggered the massive landslide is a direct consequence of human failure to take action to halt climate change to protect the sacred cow of profit.

Let there be no doubt this is just the most recent , horrific , example of the world we are entering with record heatwaves, droughts and endangered food supplies as ice melts and weather dangers such as El Nino are boosted by the stubborn profit driven addiction to fossil fuels.

All this takes place in a world in which the powerful play about with targets and the largely –but not exclusively–right wing forces are engaged in a suicidal war against climate action with the Tories barring candidates who support the idea of Net Zero.

The days when the likes of the BBC ran programmes with two people one for and one against the idea of climate change may be gone but the deniers are creeping back in the shape of Reform, the Tories and shamefully some trade unionists posing as “realists”.

This approach can most clearly be seen with the intense pressure being exerted by the fossil fuel lobby to give the go ahead to the oil and gas drilling at Rosebank and Jackdaw with spurious claims about the “National Interest”.

The signs are that this campaign already has the new Burnham government wavering and is certainly joined by major sections of the SNP who want to scrap taxes on big oil’s excess profits and are wobbling on the issue as illustrated by statements from the First Minister.

This march towards ecocide in the face of a growing mass of evidence on the deadly danger of the climate crisis is paralleled by the suicidal policy of the ever escalating arms race including more and more nukes capable of terminating human existence .

It is against this sombre background that the twin supposed keynote stories of Premier Burnham’s parliamentary debut and, on the same day, the presentation by First Minister Swinney of his grandly titled “Programme for Government” were offered to voters by a compliant media.

Still enjoying the sheen of newness gained in his summer victory Burnham played some crowd pleasing tunes at his Commons appearance squarely putting the deeply unpopular privatisations of the Thatcher era in the frame and slamming the mass wave of de-industrialisation which devastated entire communities and still does.

However making the case against Thatcher to an audience dominated by scores of Labour MPs was not the most difficult task the new Prime Minister will face. Much greater challenges lie ahead if there is to be any real prospects of the remedies for the ills set out by Burnham being implemented.

The omens so far will leave Voice readers apprehensive as they contemplate a budget next month.

The pledges to increased war spending underlined by installing military cheerleader Healey as chancellor, assuring the money lenders that the foolish fiscal rules will be followed as by his failed predecessor and Trappist silence on taxing the rich all point to a left in words, right in actions direction.

All wrapped in lots of double speak on public ownership as “control”,vague devolution and a carefully crafted image of concern it looks much like the same old Labour.

Readers seeking hope or inspiration in this darkening landscape in the words of First Minister Swinney will have scheduled a visit to Specsavers as they scanned the small print for comfort.

Central to the statement–carefully wrapped in consultations which, by their short length, look cosmetic and appeals for cross party support which is, for a minority government, a necessity rather than a principle–was an agenda of cuts and sackings.

Slashing the number of health boards still leaves patients waiting until 2031 until they can be assured of a mere 6 month wait for surgery. Given the outcomes of so called previous reorganisations in the NHS and local government this provides little confidence that the crisis hit NHS and cash starved councils will be able to overcome the crisis they face.

And the fact that all this is to be dealt with in a three month “consultation” strongly suggests this is simply a sham and the outcome is already written.

Perhaps the most glaring omission from the statement is the total failure to scrap the council tax despite decades of promises to do so.

Indeed not only has the SSP campaigned for 24 years for the replacement of the council tax with an income based Scottish Service Tax which would cut bills and double council funds but they actually campaign for it as in the recent Holyrood election.

Behind this statement of spin, smoke and fake radicalism the question must be will the public–universally agreed to be sceptics–find the real world in anyway improved?

With 20,000 jobs at stake and a discernible rightward shift in the SNP the need for a mass movement for an alternative direction to build houses, scrap PFI, dump the council tax among others is now top priority.